Report of the Refugee Office – UNCCP 232nd meeting (Paris) – Summary Record

UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND MEETING

held in the Hotel de Crillon, Paris, on Saturday,
 8 September 1951, at 5:00 p.m.

Report of the Refugee Office

The CHAIRMAN thanked Mr. Andersen; Head of the Refugee Office, for his explanations to the Commission when presenting the Office’s report. His statement on that occasion would certainly be of the greatest use to the members of the Commission when studying the substance of the various chapters of the report. He added that the Commission could, if necessary, ask Mr. Andersen for any additional information it might require.

The Commission had considered the question of the future activities of the Office and the assistance it might provide during the conference. It had decided to request the Office to study the following questions:

(1) Legal and historical precedents for mutual cancellation of war damages by States;

(2) Historical precedents and conventions for regulating the rights of riparian States (e.g. the Aras, Danube and Rhine Rivers);

(3) Historical precedents for determination of the ability of a State to pay off compensation claims or other debts (e.g. Dawes Plan).

He stated that the Commission was asking the Office to submit, not conclusions or recommendations, but legal and historical studies bearing upon the experience acquired in these fields at the international level.

Mr. ANDERSEN (Head of the Refugee Office) thanked the Chairman for his compliments and assured the Commission that the experts working with him, and he himself, would embark immediately upon the studies suggested, and would not fail to bear in mind that their function was to submit a study of the legal and political precedents in the matter rather than conclusions or recommendations.

The meeting rose at 5:30 p.m.